Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

November 2, 2012

Upcoming Interview with Liz Strange on November 6th, 2012

Because Halloween has just passed and I just had to indulge in my passion for the monstrous a little more, I decided to interview Liz Strange about her vampire novels and portrayals of the monstrous and mythical. If you got a chance to read my review of Liz Strange’s The Embrace of Life and Death, I know you are looking forward...

Interviews/News Comment: 1

November 1, 2012

Quote – Vampires Smell of Old Books

“Smells pretty good for a vampire. He smelled of old books and rooms left forgotten.” -Kerry Anne Fudge – “Harvest” in UnEarthed (Third Person Press, 2012).

Quotes Comments: 0

October 31, 2012

Werewolf Ecology

A Review of Douglas Smith’s Spirit Dance (from Impossibilia, PS Publishing, 2008) By Derek Newman-Stille As the final installment in Werewolf Wednesdays for October (and on Halloween of course), I thought I would do a review of Douglas Smith’s short story Spirit Dance. Not only does this story feature werewolves, but also several other types of shapeshifters. Spirit Dance represents...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 6

October 30, 2012

A Dance of Blood and Light

A Review of Liz Strange’s The Embrace of Life and Death (MLR Press, 2011). By Derek Newman-Stille A lot of people who see a cover that features two half naked men would assume that a book does not have a lot of substance to it. However, after hearing Liz Strange speak at Can Con in Ottawa, I knew she had...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 4

October 29, 2012

Quote – Science Fiction Not Necessarily About Fiction or Science

“Science fiction… is not necessarily either fiction or anything to do with science.” -Judith Merril- Foreword (In Tesseracts)

Quotes Comments: 0

October 28, 2012

Macabre Marginalia

A Review of Postscripts to Darkness edited by Sean Moreland and Dominik Parisien (Ex Hubris Imprints, 2011) By Derek Newman-Stille Sean Moreland and Dominik Parisien’s Postscripts to Darkness (Volume 1) is a roadmap into the Weird. Postscripts takes the ordinary and infuses it with the odd, reinventing landscapes, small towns, family, friendship, secrets of the heart. It represents the familiar...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

October 27, 2012

Textual Bodies

A Review of Helen Marshall’s Hair Side, Flesh Side (ChiZine, Forthcoming November 2012). By Derek Newman-Stille Helen Marshall’s Hair Side, Flesh Side is a textual body in itself. Each of the short stories contained in the volume is named after a body part, and her work focusses on the body as a textual entity, as something that is written upon,...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

October 26, 2012

Interview with Karen Dudley About Food For the Gods

An Interview with Karen Dudley By Derek Newman-Stille I want to thank Karen Dudley for taking the time to do this interview. As someone with a background in Classical Studies, it is always exciting to hear about an author’s insights about the ancient Greek world. Karen Dudley is the Author of Food For The Gods by RavenStone Press (an imprint of...

Interviews Comments: 2

October 25, 2012

Home is Where The Ghosts Are

A Review of Ian Rogers’ Every House is Haunted (ChiZine, October 2012) By Derek Newman-Stille Ian Rogers makes the familiar strange in Every House is Haunted, taking comfortable locales, experiences, and people and turning them into unfamiliar territory, the realm of the unexpected and weird. Rogers conducts a hauntology of place, showing the role of memory that swirls around the...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 5

October 24, 2012

Medical Myths and Werewolf What-ifs

A Review of Sparkle Hayter’s Naked Brunch (No Exit Press, 2002) By Derek Newman-Stille The real monster in Sparkle Hayter’s Naked Brunch is the medical world that portrays certain bodies as unacceptable and in need of being fixed. Hayter’s werewolf begins as a regular woman, Annie Engel, who is tightly controlled and subjugated – bullied by a boss who uses...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 2